The often-volatile border between the United States and Mexico presents massive challenges to law enforcement. Recently kidnappings of Americans in northern Mexico have made headlines and worried the authorities.
The recent kidnapping of a couple from Dallas in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas has illustrated the vulnerabilities and the security challenge in the border zone.
The Dallas Morning News reported on how all Mexican border states are under security advisories from the U.S. government. The highest levels of warning concern the states of Tamaulipas and Coahuila.
On April 15, the U.S State Department updated its warning about travel to Mexico.
It stated:
“U.S. citizens have been the victims of violent crimes, such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery by organized criminal groups in various Mexican states.”
Kidnappings Surge in Tamaulipas
The family from the Dallas area was kidnapped in April en route to a funeral in the state of San Luis Potosí in Mexico. They became the victims of a highway assault that led to almost three weeks in captivity three hours from the Texas border, near the Tamaulipas capital of Ciudad Victoria.
The incident raised concerns about kidnappings in Tamaulipas, a state whose security situation has “deteriorated horribly” according to U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Brownsville, who is a member of the House Homeland Security Committee.
Last year Breitbart Texas reported on how a drug cartel in Tamaulipas was seeking Americans for kidnapping to obtain ransom money.
The article pointed out that the Gulf Cartel has started to “target innocent people as a way to make quick money.”
Some of the victims did not survive their kidnapping ordeal.
There have even been instances of Mexican cartels crossing the U.S. border to carry out kidnappings.
In 2011, CNS News spoke to Sheriff Tomas Herrera of Maverick County, who said he did not agree with the assessment of the Department of Homeland Security that security at the U.S-Mexico border was improving.
He said he did not believe a single mile of the 85-mile stretch of border between the U.S. and Mexico in Maverick County, was secure and members of the Mexican drug cartels were making incursions into the United States to kidnap teenagers for their smuggling operations.
Serious crimes committed in the areas around the southern border are investigated by the FBI. They include human smuggling, drug trafficking, kidnap, murder, and corruption.
The FBI points out cash and weapons are flowing south on the 2,000-mile border and drugs are flowing north.
If you are charged with serious crimes such as kidnapping or human smuggling, you are likely to be facing a long jail sentence. Our Austin criminal defense attorneys can help you to fight these charges. Call us as soon as possible at (512) 399-2311.